/**

Copyright (C) SYSTAP, LLC DBA Blazegraph 2006-2016.  All rights reserved.

Contact:
     SYSTAP, LLC DBA Blazegraph
     2501 Calvert ST NW #106
     Washington, DC 20008
     licenses@blazegraph.com

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the License.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 */
/*
 * Created on Feb 12, 2012
 */

package com.bigdata.bop.engine;

/**
 * A message sent to the {@link IQueryClient} when an operator begins executing
 * for some chunk of inputs (an operator on a node against a shard for some
 * binding set chunks generated by downstream operator(s)).
 * 
 * @author <a href="mailto:thompsonbry@users.sourceforge.net">Bryan Thompson</a>
 * @version $Id$
 */
public interface IStartOpMessage extends IOpLifeCycleMessage {

    /**
     * The #of {@link IChunkMessage} accepted as the input for the operator.
     * <p>
     * Note: This should be ONE (1) unless {@link IChunkMessage} are being
     * combined for the operator.
     */
    int getChunkMessageCount();

}
